A sparkling new translation of this flashback to the start of Inspector Maigret's career, part of the new Penguin Maigret series.

The profession he had always yearned for did not actually exist ... he imagined a cross between a doctor and a priest, a man capable of understanding another's destiny at first glance.The very first investigation by eager young police secretary Jules Maigret leads him to a wealthy Paris family's dark secrets.

Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations.

'His artistry is supreme' John Banville

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian